Movies

To wrap up the animation marathon (which should have taken six weeks, but took around four months instead), the Filmspotting podcast gave out some awards. I’ll do the same, and I’ll make some other closing comments.

• Best Character: This one has to go to the Iron Giant. He’s this wonderful childlike character who has a great arc in the film. You would expect the movie to be more about how the Giant changed everyone else’s lives (which it does, and I don’t mean to diminish that), but it’s really about the robot itself, and how it grows and overcomes it’s original programming. The way we learn about the Giant and how the arc is handled by the filmmakers just makes this the most compelling character in the marathon.
• Best Villain: This is a tough one, as there are more good choices here. All the films have a compelling villain, but I’m going to go with Akira. Even though we don’t see Akira until the end of the film, his presense looms over everything that preceeds it, and I kinda get the feeling that Akira is behind it all. Akira, to me, seems to be more than the physical manifestation of a young boy, but rather the catastrophic force that is unleashed as a result of human meddling (so, in a sense, Tetsuo is kinda part of this villain).
• Best Scene: This is another hard one, but I’m going to have to agree with Adam from filmspotting in picking the brutal “Setsuko death montage” towards the end of Grave of the Fireflies. It’s quite possibly the most depressing scene I’ve ever seen, and while I don’t ever want to watch it again, I have to admit that it is the most powerful thing I watched in the marathon.
• Most Visually Stunning: I think it’s pretty obvious that this is between Spirited Away & Akira, both of which are truly impressive works of animation. Part of me wants to give it to Spirited Away because of the incredible imagination that went into every visual element of the film, but while Akira’s story does not require as much in the way of imagination, it’s visual elements truly are spectacular (all the moreso because of the technology available at the time). We’ll call this a tie.
• Best Film: This one is difficult. For me, it comes down to Spirited Away, The Iron Giant, and Grave of the Fireflies. While Fireflies is easily the most emotionally draining of the six films and quite well done in every respect, I can’t bring myself to say it’s the best film. It’s just too heartbreaking. I’ll give this award to Spirited Away. It’s just so good that I have a hard time talking about it (and not just because I’m afraid of ruining it for others, as I implied in my review). Sometimes this sort of thing can be inexplicably subjective, and Spirited Away is one of those cases.

None of this is to say that Watership Down or Ghost in the Shell were bad films, they just didn’t neatly fit into the categories (if there was a “most thought provoking” award, it’d certainly go to Ghost in the Shell). All the films in the marathon were well done and certainly worth a watch, especially if you’re not familiar with the genre (or if you’re only familiar with the Disney style of the genre).

The one thing that bothers me about the list of films in the marathon was that the Anime portion was almost criminally short. While I think the Anime films in the marathon are all sorta landmark achievements, they are really only touching the surface of the genre, and a few of them are, well, difficult films (especially Fireflies). If I were to introduce someone to the genre, I’d probably start with Spirited Away. In any case, this will not be the last you hear about Anime on the blog, though I’m not sure where I’m headed next. I think at some point, I’ll have to list out all the Anime that I’ve seen and solicit some suggestions… but for now, I’ve got several live-action films in my Netflix queue that I’ve been neglecting.

So the animation marathon was on a bit of a hiatus, as I was pretty much playing along with the Filmspotting guys, and they got caught up in best-of-2006 lists (like me) and film festivals (not yet for me, but the Philly fest is in April). They started up again last week, and will be finishing up on Friday. I’d already seen the last two films in the marathon, but unlike the other ones I saw before (Akira and Ghost in the Shell) my opinion of these has not changed much (they’re just as good as before). As such, I won’t be spending a ton of time on either one… but I think these are the two most enjoyable films in the marathon. There will be one more post after this one, wrapping up the marathon (though I have a sneaking suspicion that this will not be the last of animation on this blog). Without further adieu, here are the last two films in the marathon (these reviews will be considerably less spoiler-laden than other marathon reviews).

• Spirited Away: Of the four Hayao Miyazaki films that I’ve seen, I believe this to be the best. This is either a really easy film to review, or really hard. Easy because all it requires is that I give it an enthusiastic recommendation (which I do, go see it!). That’s all you really need, but I’ll give you the primary (spoiler free) reason: the film’s story has many turns that are unexpected, but necessary and logical. For the most part, I didn’t know what to expect for the duration of the movie. By the end, I couldn’t see any other way the story could have progressed, but I couldn’t see where it was going at any point in the story. I guess I should mention that this sort of story actually turns some people off (in the Filmspotting review, Adam felt like I do, while Sam didn’t particularly like that part of it, though he still recommended the film). Visually, it’s spectacular, and Miyazaki perfectly captures some of the subtleties of childhood (like, say, Japanese cootie shots). And this is where the hard part comes in: because of the unexpected way in which the story progresses, I don’t want to ruin it for you. Just go watch it. When you’re done, check out Steven’s spoiler-laden thoughts.
• The Iron Giant: As I already mentioned, I’ve seen this film before, and I liked it a lot. It was similar to what I was used to in an animated film, but also very different. Upon revisiting it, I was not all that surprised to find that the film was made by Brad Bird, the creator of The Incredibles. Both films share a similar quality, and they’re both great (personally, I prefer The Incredibles, but Giant is still quite good). The Iron Giant is probably the best American 2D animated film in the past 10 years or so.

  

  It follows the story of an innocent giant alien robot that lands on earth and befriends a little boy. A paranoid government agent wreaks havoc when he finds out about it and tries to destroy the robot (which is programmed for self-defense). There are a lot of things to like about this movie: the story, the characters, and the visuals are all great. But in the end, it’s the childlike Giant that steals the show. Sam from Filmspotting called the Giant one of the greatest characters ever, and it would be hard to argue against that. It’s got the elements of a preachy movie, but it doesn’t go too far overboard, and it’s incredibly entertaining anyway. (More screenshots and possible spoilers below the fold)

This just about wraps up the animation marathon. Another short post covering what Filmspotting is tentatively calling “The Harryhausens” (animation marathon awards) and we’re done.

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Animation Marathon: Spirited Away and The Iron GiantRead More »

It’s that time again. I’ll be liveblogging the Oscars again tonight, as is tradition here at Kaedrin (previous installments: 2006, 2005 and 2004). Now, I’ve seen more movies in 2006 than any other year I can think of and yet, I still haven’t seen the majority of the nominees. Like that matters. Once again, I’ll have to rely on the intangibles of the Oscars in determining who is going to win (incidentally, my average for the past 3 years is around 74%, which should tell you something about the intangibles).That said, this year’s picks seem a little more popular with regular folks than last year’s lineup. As John Scalzi notes:

This is another low-grossing year for the Oscars, since aside from The Departed, none of the Best Picture nominees has cleared $100 million. However, it’s not the total commercial embarrassment last year’s slate was — only two of this year’s Best Picture nominees have been outgrossed by a Best Documentary nominee instead of all of them. It’s progress!

Indeed! However, I’m betting that within the next decade, a Best Documentary film will be nominated for Best Picture. But I digress. On with the picks:

• Best Picture: This is actually the toughest of the major categories. The only film that gets an obvious axe is The Queen, as I suspect the voters will think the Best Actress nod will be enough. I’d say that Eastwood’s Letters from Iwo Jima is next on the chopping block, as it’s a foreign language film told from the perspective of our enemy. Little Miss Sunshine probably has a better chance than a lot of critics say, because it’s the only one of the nominees that people seem to really enjoy. The academy typically doesn’t reward comedies, but Sunshine has a sorta Shakespeare in Love (which somehow managed to beat out Saving Private Ryan in 98) feeling to it. The popular choices generally seem to fall between Babel and The Departed. Neither film seems to be tremendously popular with the Academy, but I’ll say that The Departed will have the momentum tonight, and that will be my choice.
• Best Director: Martin Scorsese. I mean, come on, the guy is due. Not only that, but The Departed is legitimately a great film. The only real threat comes from Clint Eastwood, but I suspect that the Academy will recognize that Clint already has two statues for directing and will want to right their several wrongs (i.e. Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas). This is complete speculation, but I’d like to think that academy members, which are predominantly actors, will fall into line on this one. Hell, I bet Clint would vote for Scorsese. One other note: It’s really nice to see Paul Greengrass get the nomination as he did an outstanding job in United 93, but it’s a sympathy nomination that won’t carry over to the award.
• Best Actor: Forest Whitaker for The Last King of Scotland. The only thing he has going against him is that, from what I understand, he plays more of a supporting role. But he has a lot going for him, not the least of which is that he apparently gives a stellar performance. Plus, I don’t see much in the way of competition. Then again, I haven’t seen any of the films in this category (!), so I could be completely off base. If Leonardo DiCaprio was nominated for The Departed, I think he would have been a good dark horse, but somehow I don’t think Blood Diamond has legs. Peter O’Toole has some momentum, but I don’t think it’s enough to unseat Whitaker as the favorite.
• Best Actress: Helen Mirren for The Queen. No contest here.
• Best Supporting Actor: Eddie Murphy in Dreamgirls. The film got the snub for Best Picture and Director, so I’m betting they’ll have the sympathy vote in the smaller categories. Alan Arkin has a fair chance here, though.
• Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Hudson for Dreamgirls. I think she’s pretty much a lock too.
• Best Original Screenplay: Another difficult category. My superstition is that Screenplay awards tend to go to films that do well commercially, but sometimes don’t do so well in the major categories (the most notable evidence for this that comes to mind is Pulp Fiction, but I called this a superstition for a reason). As such, I think this will go to Little Miss Sunshine. I think this may be a fair predictor to how well Sunshine will do in Best Picture (if it wins screenplay, I think it’s out of the running). I think the other nominees have a fair chance, but Sunshine stands out.
• Best Adapted Screenplay: The Departed. The competition for this is somewhat week. There is some buzz that Borat will take the statue, but I can’t imagine that happening. I mean, was there really a script for most of that movie? It would fit with my Screenplay going to the more popular film theory though…
• Editing: Another tough one, but I think this is going to be The Departed‘s night. I’d say there is a pretty good chance for Babel or United 93 here as well.
• Cinematography: I’ll give this one to Pan’s Labyrinth, though it could also go to Children of Men (personally, I loved the cinematography in The Illusionist, but I don’t think it has a chance). Also, why wasn’t The Fountain nominated? I think it would have an easy win here if it were.
• Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
• Musical Score: Babel.
• Best Song: Well, it’s almost certainly a song from Dreamgirls, but three were nominated! I’ll just pick “Listen.”
• Makeup: Pan’s Labyrinth.
• Best Animated Film: <a href="Cars“>Cars.
• Best Documentary: An Inconvenient Truth (though it could easily go to one of the other nominees).
• Best Foreign Language Film: Pan’s Labyrinth.

Well, that’s it for now. Check back around Oscar time for lots of updates! Feel free to post your picks in the comments…

Update 8:28 pm: Oh boy! Only 2 minutes to go! I don’t get the appeal of the preshows. The Barbara Walters special is theoretically neat, but they didn’t have anyone interesting this year. And I really, really don’t get the red carpet stuff. But I’m not a fashion nerd, so whatever.

Update 8:33 pm: This montage where all the nominees goof off is a great idea. If only these people were more interesting when they give their acceptance speeches. Still, this makes for a great way to start the Oscars. Good sign? Or downhill from here?

Update 8:39 pm: Ok, Ellen’s not doing that bad. I even laughed a couple of times. But I’m going to start drinking. This is probably a bad sign.

Update 8:42 pm: “It’s not that we don’t have time for long speeches, it’s that we don’t have time for boring speeches.” Brilliant. I’ve heard that the Oscar producers have been pushing for winners to be more interesting and do less “thanking” of random people. We’ll see, I guess.

Update 8:48 pm: Pan’s Labyrinth takes the Art Direction award, and deservedly so. Apparently I missed this one when making my pics, but I probably would have picked this one. Annnnd, yep, boring speech.

Update 8:55 pm: Will Ferrell & Jack Black are funny. Comedies really don’t do well at the Oscars. The last outright comedy that won was Annie Hall in 1977. I don’t know if this augors for or against Little Miss Sunshine. And John C. Reilly joins the show! I honestly think that dude should have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his work in Talledega Nights. Funny stuff.

Update 8:58 pm: Pan’s Labyrinth takes the Makup award. So far, I’m 1 for 1.

Update 9:01 pm: Poor kids. Not only were they forced to get up in front of the entire world and read bad jokes off the teleprompter, but they’re presenting the award for animated shorts.

Update 9:02 pm: Yeah! The Danish Poet won. Woo Hoo! I can’t believe it won! It’s so exciting! Holy shit, I never thought they’d reward that short! This is great!

Update 9:04 pm: West Bank Story wins the live action short award, and the clip they showed is actually kinda funny (it’s a comedy/musical that takes place between to falafel stands in Israel/Palestine) . And holy crap, Jack Nicholson has no hair! Sorry, just saw that. And this guy is actually giving a decent speech.

Update 9:07 pm: Man, I hate trackbacks. I’m temporarily removing the Scalzi link at the top of this post, as I have to wait for the trackback to fail every time I update this post. I’ll put it back in later. Sorry John!

Update 9:13 pm: This sound effects choir is pretty neat. Another good idea. Hey, is that Michael Winslow from the Police Academy movies? This is pretty awesome.

Update 9:16 pm: Sound editing jokes were actually kinda funny. Another award I neglected to pick. Sorry. Letters from Iwo Jima takes the award and… yep, boring thank yous. Seriously, maybe they should forbid anything but a generic thank you and we’ll get more interesting acceptance speeches.

Update 9:18 pm: I guess we’re getting all the boring awards out of the way first, huh? I wonder how they decide what order to do the awards in. Sometimes they’ll put big awards at the beginning of the show, which I guess is supposed to suck in viewers, and then keep them watching until the end. Which is better? You got me. Dreamgirls wins Sound Mixing. It being a musical, I guess that makes sense (another award I didn’t pick).

Update 9:25 pm: Best Supporting Actor goes to… Alan Arkin! I’m 1 for 2 now, but I don’t have any issues with it. Hmm, does Ellen know if Scorsese won? This would be kinda cruel if he didn’t.

Update 9:35 pm: I’ve made no secret that I hate the musical performances at the Oscars (with the notable exception of Blame Canada and that time Antonio Banderas came out and sang that song, which was so bad as to be entertaining). Putting two in a row is a mixed blessing. It’s bad because, well, I have to endure it. But it’s good because we’re at least getting some of it over with, like ripping off a band aid really fast. I almost wish they’d do all the nominees now.

Update 9:37 pm: Yay global warming!

Update 9:43 pm: Ok, so not only has Jack Nicholson shaved his head, but he’s wearing sunglasses too. Every year, some idiot does this. Samuel L. Jackson made it work. Nicholson kinda does, but a part of me just thinks he got high and didn’t want anyone to know. Best Animated Feature goes to Happy Feet. Crap. I’m 1 for 3.

Update 9:46 pm: Affleck was the bomb in Phantoms, yo! Montages are actually pretty entertaining…

Update 9:51 pm: William Monahan wins for The Departed, making me 2 for 4. He at least makes a funny comment at the beginning of his speech before devolving back into the thank yous.

Update 10:01 pm: Costumes, yet another award I neglected to pick, goes to Marie Antoinette. Her speech was filled with thank yous, but it was still kinda decent…

Update 10:07 pm: As Tom Cruise kisses some studio head’s ass, I just want to mention that in the above entry, I didn’t mean to imply that Marie Antoinette’s reanimated corpse gave an acceptance speech. It was the costume designer for the movie, not Marie. Whoa, what’s going on with her neck? Again, I’m not referring Marie Antoinette, but the studio head woman.

Update 10:11 pm: Ellen got Stephen Spielberg to take a picture of Clint Eastwood and her so that she could put it on MySpace. It was funnier than it sounds.

Update 10:14 pm: Cinematography goes to Pan’s Labyrinth, and I’m at 3 for 5.

Update 10:21 pm: Heh, Robert Downey jr making fun of his drug abuse. Why are there only three nominees for visual effects this past year? Strange. Oscar goes to Pirates, and after a rocky start I’m at 4 for 6. Another joke in an acceptance speech! And I can tell he made it up on the spot because he referenced a joke from earlier in the night.

Update 10:30 pm: Mitchieville is also liveblogging: “If you are watching the Osacrs right now, you’re listening to two insufferable foreigners yammering on about nothing. Just hurry the hell up, foreigners, I gotta pee.” And holy crap, Pan’s Labryinth doesn’t win! How can this be? Seriously, what’s going on here? I’ve never heard of “Lives of Others” but come on, how can Pan’s Labryinth lose this award? I guess it was a little too dark for the academy…

Update 10:33 pm: A tribute to Snakes on a Plane? Why not?

Update 10:37 pm: And best supporting actress goes to Jennifer Hudson. I guess they can’t all be upsets. I’m 5 for 8. Ok, she thanked God twice. Kissass.

Update 10:40 pm: It’s not the Superbowl, but the Oscars always has some good new commercials. There’s been a couple, but the highlight has to be Wes Anderson’s American Express commercial about a half hour ago: “Can you do a .357 with a bayonet?” Heh.

Update 10:50 pm: Hey, it’s Jerry Seinfeld and they let him badmouth theaters. Nice. Best Documentary goes to An Inconvenient Truth. Shocker. I’m 6 for 9. Yay global warming.

Update 10:55 pm: Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti western scores are so awesome, and I had no idea that he did all these other ones and oh damn, a music performance that isn’t even one of this year’s nominees. I’m getting another beer.

Update 11:00 pm: I think Ennio Morricone just cursed in Italian and Clint is just winging it in an attempt to cover it up.

Update 11:09 pm: Best original score goes to Babel and I’m at 7 for 10. Guy is boring. You get the picture.

Update 11:11 pm: Oh shit, the president of the Academy. And he’s cheating on a bet. Run!

Update 11:15 pm: And Original Screenplay goes to Little Miss Sunshine. I thought this was a tough category, but now that I think about it, Sunshine was the obvious choice. Hence my pick, and I’m at 8 for 11.

Update 11:28 pm: Best orignal song goes to… An Inconvenient Truth? Huh, I guess I should have seen that coming – by having three nominations, Dreamgirls probably ended up splitting their votes. Plus, Hollywood is falling all over themselves for Al Gore. Hopefully no more music performances tonight. Indeed, we’re getting to a point where the only awards left are going to be big ones. Yay global warming. I’m at 8 for 12.

Update 11:35 pm: Michael Mann’s look at America? Intriguing, but it turns out to be just another montage. A good one, though.

Update 11:44 pm: Gah, I forgot about the Editing award. It goes to The Departed, and she makes an interesting comment about this being the third Scorsese film to win for Editing. Is the next half hour going to be all Marty, all the time?

Update 11:46 pm: Dammit, I forgot about the annual dead people montage. Come on, get to the good awards people!

Update 11:52 pm: As an aside, why wasn’t Philip Seymour Hoffman nominated for MI III? Oh, and Hellen Mirren wins, of course. In fact, I wrote and published this before she actually won.

Update 11:54 pm: You see, I was right. She won (Take that, Sov!). And I’m at 10 for 14. The way they’re going, they’re probably going to put Best Director as the last award announced. And Scorsese will lose.

Update 12:04 am: Just announce the award already! Alright, Forest Whitaker wins, got it, NEXT! (No, I’m not impatient, why? I’m at 11 for 15.)

Update 12:07 am: Three Amigos? Uh, yeah, whatever, just tell us that Scorsese won. Please.

Update 12:10 am: Holy fuck, he won. Three 6 Mafia: One, Martin Scorsese: One. It’s a dead heat now. Heh, I bet he’s had that “check the envelope” joke ready for 15 years (and like, 5 nominations). Great speech, and thank God we won’t have to endure the “Will he win” debate every time he makes a film (we probably will, but one can hope).

Update 12:14 am: And The Departed takes best picture. Congrats Marty, it’s a great night for your film.

Final Update 12:17 am: Ungh, it started out good, but went mostly downhill until the end when Scorsese won. I ended up at 13 for 17, which is around 76% (a little above average for me). So much for this being a night of upsets (except for Pan’s Labyrinth losing out on best foreign language film, which it totally deserved.) I think maybe I’ll have to take the DVR approach that James Berardinelli mentioned in his post, thus condensing the Oscars into about an hour or so.

The Actual Final Update 2.26.07, 7:00 pm: It appears that Alex has also liveblogged the event, while Steven thinks that the Academy is running out of time to give Roger Corman the lifetime achievement award (I concur).

So the formally announced 2006 Kaedrin Movie Awards came to an end yesterday (Casino Royale appears to be the big winner, with a total of 3 awards), but I’m going to wring this particular subject for everything I can get, so here’s a few additional awards in the style of Alex’s Arbitrary Awards.

• Most Genres in a Single Film: The World’s Fastest Indian – Four movies for the price of one. You’ve got the initial buddy comedy which morphs into a fish out of water story, then goes on a road trip, culminating in an inspirational sports drama. I really enjoyed this movie, and it would probably also qualify for an “Overlooked” award, if I had one.
• Best Non-Western Western: The Proposition – I think this movie features the best opening sequence all year. It starts with a chaotic gunfight that immediately disorients the viewer, and consistently thwarts expecations throughout. Ultimately, this doesn’t work as well as it sounds, but it’s still a good movie and it features some of the most gorgeous photography all year (that is strangely able to evoke beauty while stressing an untamed desolation that’s not really that pretty).
• The About Face Award: The Matador – Pierce Brosnan plays against character as a burnt-out hitman who befriends everyman/businessman Greg Kinnear. It’s a surprisingly effective film that doesn’t fall into the traps you’d think it would. A bold move by Brosnan.
• Best High Concept Film: Snakes on a Plane – Duh.
• Best Magic Tricks: The Prestige – I think I might have actually enjoyed The Illusionist more, but The Prestige had the more memorable tricks.

And that about does it. The only thing that remains is the top 10 list (coming on Sunday).

The nominations for the 2006 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. This post marks the end of the formally nominated awards, but I’ll post another wrapup post with some miscellaneous awards tomorrow, and my top 10 films of 2006 on Sunday.

Best Action Sequences: Casino Royale

The action sequences in Casino Royale were superb. There were some who didn’t appreciate the initial footchase, which seemed to contain the fantastical elements of Wu Xia Pian films (most recently popularized by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Hero, and House of Flying Daggers), but I loved it. The race to save the plane in the airport was pure Bond, a more traditional action sequence that was executed perfectly. There are a few other good sequences as well. The stiffest competition actually came from the other spy flick, MI III. A stunning opening sequence, as well as several other great set pieces propelled the film along nicely (though I don’t think it quite reaches Bond levels). Apocalypto is notable because of its extended chase sequence, which was well done and impressive. The space shuttle sequence in Superman Returns was the best moment in that film. In the end, Bond was just better than the competition.

Best Plot Twist/Surprise: The Departed

The Departed is a remake of the Hong Kong flick Infernal Affairs, and even though I had seen that movie, all of the shocking moments in The Departed were still effective, even though I knew they were coming. This speaks to just how impeccably staged this film is, and it is one of the best films of the year. All of the other nominees were quite good as well, with special mention of X-Men III: for all the film’s flaws, one can’t say the writers didn’t have guts. Unfortunately, X-Men was totally overshadowed by its offscreen shenanigans (i.e. Brett Ratner, Halle Berry, etc…)

This marks the end of the formal awards. Stay tuned for a wrapup post tomorrow (which may contain a few additional awards), as well as my top 10 movies of the year on Sunday.

The nominations for the 2006 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. This week, I’ll be announcing two winners every day, culminating in a post with my top 10 movies of the year and possibly some other wrap-up posts. Here are the awards for Best Sequel and Biggest Disappointment:

Best Sequel: Casino Royale

This was a pretty easy decision. In the nominations, I mentioned that people like to return to characters they love, but that sequels aren’t often very good. In this case, I’ve never been much of a fan of James Bond, but after seeing Casino Royale, I am, and I’m greatly looking forward to the next film. I’m still making my way through all of the previous Bond films, but I honestly think this ranks somewhere in the upper echelon, if not number one (there are some mitigating factors here, but I will save for a later post). MI III was great fun, but completely overshadowed by Bond. Clerks II was a genuine surprise and one of my favorite movies of the year, but Bond still wins out.

Biggest Disappointment: The Fountain

This is actually quite a hard category. In theory, I can measure my dissapointment by taking the difference of my expectations and the actual quality of the film. Of course, both are subjective measures, so it’s still quite difficult. I think the reason The Fountain “wins” this award is not that it’s such a bad movie, but that my expectations were so very high. I remember reading about this “Untitled Aronofsky Sci-Fi Project” several years ago, and have been waiting patiently for it. I’ve come to expect a lot from Aronofsky, and while I think he produced one of the most beautiful looking movies in recent memory, I also think it’s missing something important. It’s an interesting and ambitious failure, which isn’t all that bad of a category to be put in. I certainly don’t think this movie is any worse than the other nominees (which were at least mildy entertaining or fun, The Da Vinci Code being the notable exception). Again, the big difference is that my expectations for the other nominees were relatively low. I wanted to see them all, and was excited to go to the theater, but for the most part, I felt the movies were mediocre.

On deck: Best Action Sequences and Best Plot Twist/Surprise

The nominations for the 2006 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. This week, I’ll be announcing two winners every day, culminating in a post with my top 10 movies of the year and possibly some other wrap-up posts. Here are the awards for Most Visually Stunning film and Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film:

Most Visually Stunning: The Fountain

Pretty much the only reason I included this category was so that I could give The Fountain an award. I didn’t love the movie, but I’ll be damned if it wasn’t the prettiest fucking movie I’ve seen in years. We’re talking jaw-dropping visuals here. I don’t think there’s a single shot in the movie that isn’t absolutely gorgeous. There is some stiff competition in this category, but nothing on the order of The Fountain. Ironically, the only movie that gives Fountain a run for it’s money is Pan’s Labyrinth, which wasn’t nominated because it just came out in wide release this week (I have since seen it, and it is indeed a visually impressive work).

Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film: The Descent

I think this would be mildly controversial if the competition wasn’t so lame this year. The Descent certainly has it’s detractors and it’s not a perfect film, but I still enjoyed it a lot. It’s the only one of the nominated films that evoked sustained suspense, and that means a lot in my book. Hostel did make me squirm (which is no small feat), but was ultimately a little too sloppy and schlockey to compete. Slither was a ton of fun in a Tremors sorta way, but not at all scary. A Scanner Darkly was interesting and visually neat, though it’s ultimately a mess. Unfortunately, the Sci-Fi/Horror genre didn’t get much attention this year, so there really wasn’t much to choose from. Still, when I think of my favorite moviegoing experiences of the year, The Descent ranks somewhere near the top (this is undoubtedly because I saw it at a movie festival in a theater filled with movie lovers, as opposed to the typical multiplex filled with obnoxious morons). It has issues and I wouldn’t consider it a truly great film, but entertaining, creepy and suspenseful.

Next up: Best Sequel and Biggest Disappointment

The nominations for the 2006 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week. This week, I’ll be announcing two winners every day, culminating in a post with my top 10 movies of the year and possibly some other wrap-up posts. Here comes the Best Comedic Performance and Breakthrough Performance awards:

Best Comedic Performance: Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan

There really wasn’t much of a choice here. Sacha Baron Cohen so completely embodies the Borat character and follows through on every detail, no matter how embarrassing or strange it may be. It’s probably not my favorite comedy of the year, but this is without a doubt the best comedic performance of the year. No one else lays it on the line quite like this. All of the other candidates were also great, but didn’t quite display the intensity that Sacha Baron Cohen does. One performance I should have mentioned is John C. Reilly in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. Reilly is one of those tireless character actors that you’ve seen a hundred times without ever really knowing who he is… and he held his own with Will Ferrell. If there was a Best Comedic Performance, Supporting Character he’d totally be all over that.

Breakthrough Performance: Rosario Dawson in Clerks II

This was a really, really difficult decision (perhaps because my criteria was so specific and personal that everyone who was nominated was a quality choice). After banging my head against the wall, I was able to whittle the list down to two performances: Rosario Dawson in Clerks II and Ellen Page in Hard Candy. Choosing between these two is nearly impossible because they couldn’t be more different. But if I was forced to choose, I think I’d have to go with Rosario Dawson. I knew of her and had seen her in a couple of other movies, but I never really noticed her much… and she was absolutely resplendant in Clerks II. Maybe it was because she was acting opposite a bunch of non-professional actors, but she totally out-performed everyone in the film. She was just a lot of fun and really cool, the type of girl you can see loving. Ellen Page gives an outstanding performance, especially when you consider her age. She scares me, though I guess that was the point (you have to see the movie to understand, but be forewarned, it’s no picnic). This is an extremely subjective category, so I don’t think I’d expect anyone else to agree with my selections (even some of the other nominations), but I think it’s a fun one. What do you think?

On deck: Most Visually Stunning and Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film